So Many Platforms, So Many Options

Abstract

It used to be so simple, in the age of Bill and Steve.1 If you wanted to develop and sell software, you had a choice of two platforms: Windows and Mac. Sure, game developers could write for a given console, or you could write an app for a minicomputer such as the IBM AS400, but those were the exceptions. Starting with the IBM XT in March 1983 and the Apple Macintosh 128k seven months later, if you wanted to write commercial desktop software, they and their successors and offspring were the only game in town.